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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26944039">Blood in the Forest</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyM_17/pseuds/LadyM_17'>LadyM_17</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mech-X4 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brothers, Car Accidents, Missing Persons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:27:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,455</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26944039</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyM_17/pseuds/LadyM_17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark cannot believe it took him three days to learn his brother was missing, but now that he knows, he plans to find him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mark Walker &amp; Harris Harris Jr., Mark Walker &amp; Ryan Walker, Mark Walker &amp; Spyder Johnson, Mark Walker &amp; Veracity Campbell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948384</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blood in the Forest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ahh; tagging things for small fandoms is difficult! </p><p>Prompt: Day 10: They Look So Pretty When They Bleed [Trail of Blood]</p><p>Content Warnings: Blood, Car Accidents (mentions/aftermath), Medical Procedures (mentions/aftermath)<br/>Please let me know if you think anything else should be tagged for and take care of yourselves!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">It took three days for Mark to notice that his brother was missing. Sure, Ryan was fifteen and far from incapable, and Mark had a lot on his plate as far as school went, but three days without seeing each other should’ve been a red flag.</p><p class="p1">Then there was the other red flag of Ryan’s friends -- sometimes Mark’s too on a good day -- huddled in the hallway without Ryan, whispering to each other, every now and then looking over at Mark as if they wanted to tell him something. Mark hadn’t been able to fathom what they could be, it couldn’t have had to do with the robot; he had programs in place to tell him if things needed repairing and Bay City was currently experiencing a pleasant lack of monsters, keeping the robot in good shape.</p><p class="p1">“Mark?” Mark sighed and turned to see Harris, flanked by Spyder and Veracity, sure what the other boy was going to ask would be some benign thing that was not worth bothering him about. “Ryan’s missing.”</p><p class="p1">Mark blinked. “Did you just say-” He couldn’t have, because surely Mark would’ve noticed if his brother was missing, for god's sake they lived together!</p><p class="p1">“Ryan’s missing,” Veracity confirmed.</p><p class="p1">“For how long?” Mark demanded.</p><p class="p1">“Uh… almost three days now?” Harris said it like a question.</p><p class="p1">“What!” Mark lowered his voice. “And you didn’t tell me until now?</p><p class="p1">“Hey! You were busy!” Spyder argued.</p><p class="p1">“Not too busy for this!” Mark sighed. “Harris, where is his phone located?”</p><p class="p1">"I don’t have that data.”</p><p class="p1">“You… don’t… have…” Mark groaned. “Harris, how do you not have that data?”</p><p class="p1">“His phone’s offline.”</p><p class="p1">“Last position then.”</p><p class="p1">Harris tapped away on his tablet. “I’ve sent the coordinates to your phone.”</p><p class="p1">Mark verified Harris’s claim. “Alright, I’m off to go find him.”</p><p class="p1">“Wait! What about class?” Harris asked.</p><p class="p1">“Harris, my brother has been missing for days! I’m not worried about class right now!”</p><p class="p1">“Alright, alright,” Spyder said, “But hear me out, take me as backup.” Spyder flexed his arms, it did not inspire confidence.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah, I’m Mark Walker, I think I can handle this.”</p><p class="p1">Veracity rolled her eyes and shoved her bag at Mark. “I took some stuff from the robot. It might come in useful.”</p><p class="p1">“Thank you, Veracity.” She was definitely the smarter one, no matter what Harris said.</p><hr/><p class="p1">On the drive to the coordinates, Mark tried calling Ryan’s phone. He didn’t expect much, considering that he already knew Ryan’s phone was offline, but when the line went straight to voicemail, Mark’s heart dropped. It was confirmation; his brother was actually missing, not just ditching school, not getting caught up doing something at the the robot, missing. And Mark hadn’t noticed for days… what kind of brother was he?</p><p class="p1"><em>A busy one!</em> The voice in his head that insisted he was awesome chimed in. <em>You were busy!</em>…. but busy enough to not notice Ryan was missing? That was barely an excuse to notice if Dane’s girlfriend had dumped him, it certainly wasn’t enough to not notice Ryan was gone.</p><p class="p1">The coordinates led him to the side of the road, halfway out of the city. Which was fine, maybe Ryan just went for a walk and fell asleep. It was unrealistic, but Ryan was a technopath who could control a giant robot, it didn't have to be realistic.</p><p class="p1">Then he saw what was located at the coordinates. Surprisingly, he did not start off by noticing the blood, that was the last thing he noticed.</p><p class="p1">First, he noticed Ryan’s cell phone, crushed into the ground, explaining why it was offline. Then he noticed the clothes, Ryan tended to wear a ridiculous amount of layers, so while Mark didn’t think his brother was stumbling around shirtless somewhere, it was a bit concerning to see Ryan’s jackets and flannel on the ground, and this was still before he noticed it was soaked in blood.</p><p class="p1">The blood. There was so much of it. It seeped into the concrete and stained the grass on the side of the road red, but no Ryan. Mark wanted to think that meant that the blood wasn’t Ryan’s, but it seemed more likely that after whatever happened here Ryan might’ve moved. Perhaps that was a good sign, maybe he had moved himself and he wasn't too physcially hurt, but if someone else had moved him… there was no good news to be gained from this, and Mark didn’t want to ruminate on the bad. Ryan had been here, that was a start, so he would start searching from here.</p><p class="p1">Ryan was smart, hopefully smart enough to stay by the road so that someone could find him and help. As Mark walked away from the scene along the asphalt, his smartwatch sparked. “Ryan?” he called because surely that was his brother. Why else would his, perfectly fine, watch start sparking?</p><p class="p1">He tried going along the road in the other direction, maybe he’d somehow missed Ryan in his haste to reach the coordinates, and then gave a yelp as his watch sparked again. “Okay, third times a charm.” He went back to the scene and spotted another spot of blood.</p><p class="p1">Now, it was a bloody scene, blood was to be expected, but the spot was deeper into the forest than the rest of it. Surely Ryan didn’t go into the forest, he’d never be found in there! Unless… he wasn’t mean to be.</p><p class="p1">“Shit. Ryan!” Mark took off running into the forest, yelling and probably scaring every creature within a mile of him. Of course, running like a mad man did not lend itself to spotting clues to where his brother had gone, and quite soon his watch started sparking until Mark was forced to go back the way he came, slower, searching for any sign of where Ryan had gone.</p><p class="p1">Eventually, he found what he was looking for, back near the road, because of course he had run right past it: a bloody handprint. It looked about the size of Ryan’s hand, but Mark couldn’t tell, he didn’t spend a lot of time inspecting people’s hands. He kept walking in the direction in which he’d found the hand and soon found another smear of blood.</p><p class="p1">Fingers crossed, he would find something helpful soon, but the more blood he saw the more he hoped whatever he found wouldn’t be Ryan because there weren’t many good ways Ryan being at the end of this trail could end. The most hopeful scenario Mark could think of was Ryan and a dead body, because how could anybody survive losing this much blood?</p><p class="p1">Mark walked for almost an hour, every time he thought he must have missed something he finally spotted another sign of Ryan. It wasn’t always blood, thank god, sometimes it was a scrap of fabric, or his watch.</p><p class="p1">Finally, he found Ryan. It took him a moment to recognize that it was Ryan, he was so still, and for a moment Mark feared the worst. “No, no, Ryan.” Mark pressed his hands against Ryan’s neck, trying to find a pulse, and for a terrible moment, he couldn’t find it. Then it was there, slow and soft, but present.</p><p class="p1">Mark grabbed his phone and started to call 911, before the screen went black, despite the charge being at 46%. Mark looked up to see Ryan, still on the ground, but with his eyes half-open.</p><p class="p1">“Can’t call them,” Ryan’s voice was soft but far from comforting, it sounded like he’d inhaled nails.</p><p class="p1">“What! Why not? What happened to you?”</p><p class="p1">“Car.”</p><p class="p1">“You were hit by a car?”</p><p class="p1">Ryan didn’t nod, but his eyes told Mark that he was right.</p><p class="p1">“And why can’t I call the police?”</p><p class="p1">“Traeger.”</p><p class="p1">Mark jumped to his feet, spinning in place as if any moment the man would come stomping out of the forest.</p><p class="p1">“No, the car.”</p><p class="p1">“Traeger hit you with a car.” Mark didn’t think he was following, obviously, Ryan was concussed and Mark needed to call the ambulance.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah, no police.”</p><p class="p1">“No… Ryan—” Okay, now was not the time to lecture his brother about not taking on monsters of the humanoid variety without a long term plan about how to deal with them and whether or not to bring in the court of law. “Can you move your toes?”</p><p class="p1">Ryan scrunched his face. “Yeah.”</p><p class="p1">“Fingers?”</p><p class="p1">“Mhm.”</p><p class="p1">Mark frowned. “Can you stand up?”</p><p class="p1">“Nope.” Ryan didn’t elaborate.</p><p class="p1">Mark frowned. There didn’t seem to be a safe way to move him. “Can you call the robot?”</p><p class="p1">“Now?”</p><p class="p1">“No tomorrow, yes now! If you refuse to call an ambulance then we need to get you to the Med-Bay and we can’t risk moving you that far.”</p><p class="p1">“I…” Ryan squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t… too far, too hurt.”</p><p class="p1">“I have the Mech Link,” Mark said, the gears in his head turning. “And my phone.”</p><p class="p1">“So…”</p><p class="p1">“So, surely you can take some energy from that!”</p><p class="p1">“I’ve never-“</p><p class="p1">“Well try it!” Mark demanded. Seriously, this kid. </p><p class="p1">Ryan stared at the two electronics Mark dropped in front of him and suddenly his eyes flashed blue and Mark’s phone died and the Mech Link sparked.</p><p class="p1">“Did it work?”</p><p class="p1">“Shhh.”</p><p class="p1">Mark once again looked around the forest, worried Traeger had found them. He really needed to ask Ryan how he’d ended up so deep in the forest after being hit by a car and where the hell Traeger was. Instead of Traeger however, in came leaping, Mech-X4.</p><p class="p1">Mark laughed in relief as the foot came over them, raising them up into the elevator. He took them to the Med-Bay and started the process of easing Ryan just enough so the robot could scan him.</p><p class="p1">The pair were quickly joined by Harris, Veracity, and Spyder, who had been in the robot looking for another way to track Ryan when they’d been surprisingly moved, and the two geniuses took over Ryan’s medical care while Mark ensured Spyder didn’t eat the ice packs because based on Ryan’s state he was going to need them. It was just the kind of menial task Mark needed, annoying as hell because why in the world was Spyder trying to eat their ice packs, but it took enough energy that he couldn’t worry over Ryan.</p><p class="p1">Soon Harris and Veracity joined them. “How is he?” Mark asked.</p><p class="p1">“Broken arm, broken leg, bruised spine, concussion, three fractured ribs, two broken ribs, various contusions, a few cuts; some worse than others, extreme dehydration, and low blood sugar,” Veracity said.</p><p class="p1">“We’ve set the bones, stitched him up, given him an IV and some pain meds and we’re monitoring the concussion.”</p><p class="p1">“Holy— what was he hit by a car or something?” Spyder joked.</p><p class="p1">Mark glanced at him. “Actually, yeah.”</p><p class="p1">“Oh… bad joke.”</p><p class="p1">“Apparently it was being driven by Traeger.”</p><p class="p1">“I’ll try and find any signs of where he went,” Veracity said, heading towards the control center.</p><p class="p1">“I’ll figure out how to get us back to Bay City,” Harris said, following her. “I don’t think Ryan’s going to be up for it anytime soon.”</p><p class="p1">Spyder just wandered off, leaving Mark outside of the Med-Bay. He wondered if Spyder had done that on purpose. Probably. The kid was an idiot, but he was alright with emotions, sometimes.</p><p class="p1">Mark headed into Ryan’s room. Ryan was, well he was visibly breathing which was nice, and the heart rate monitor told Mark that he was doing fine, but he looked like shit. Three casts, a few sets of stitches, and a timer before he had to wake up so Harris and Veracity could make sure that whatever concussion he had wasn’t going to kill him. It was an unpleasant reminder of Ryan’s mortality, that at any moment, his reckless brother who piloted a fighter robot, could die.</p><p class="p1">Ryan didn’t wake up for days. They took shifts watching him, missing school through sick days and ditching. Veracity hacked into a concert venue and had them hire Grace for a few days so she didn’t notice Ryan was gone, something Ryan could’ve done in seconds but took the genius a good three minutes.</p><p class="p1">Mark was the one there when he woke up. He always took the night shifts considering everyone else had parents who would start to worry if their children were gone every night, all night.</p><p class="p1">Ryan groaned and Mark sat up, it could be a false alarm. They’d had those before, but then Ryan tried to sit up.</p><p class="p1">“Hey, no. You’ve broken way too many bones to be trying that.”</p><p class="p1">“Where am I?” Ryan asked.</p><p class="p1">“Med-Bay on the robot, do you remember the robot’s name?” Mark asked, trying to remember the questions Harris had drilled into his and Spyder’s heads in the case of one of them being there when Ryan woke up.</p><p class="p1">“Mech-X4.”</p><p class="p1">“Your name?”</p><p class="p1">“Ryan, uh… why?”</p><p class="p1">“You have a concussion, just making sure you’re alright.”</p><p class="p1">“Traeger!” Ryan yelped, and Mark whirled around only to see no one there. “No! Traeger hit me with a car.”</p><p class="p1">“I know! We know! You’ve got to stop yelling his name.”</p><p class="p1">“I… did that before?”</p><p class="p1">“Do you remember being in the forest?”</p><p class="p1">Ryan frowned. “Not really. How long has it been?”</p><p class="p1">“Around a week.”</p><p class="p1">“A week? What did you tell Mom?”</p><p class="p1">“Don’t worry, Veracity sent her to another event, we’re all clear and soon you’ll have a skateboarding accident to explain that.” Mark gestured at Ryan’s casts.</p><p class="p1">“Ugh, but she won’t let me go skateboarding for months.”</p><p class="p1">“You won’t be able to skateboard for months.”</p><p class="p1">“Stupid Traeger.” Ryan settled back down as Mark texted the team that Ryan was awake. It wasn’t late, but they’d probably be up— with High School and the robot their sleep schedules were all sorts of messed up.</p><p class="p1">"What do you remember?" Mark asked, while trying to field way too many medical questions from Veracity and Harris with a random Spyder question about whatever was on his mind at that moment thrown in.</p><p class="p1">"Uhm... not much, just realizing that I didn't want to be on the road when Traeger came back and figuring that the forest would be the quickest place to hide."</p><p class="p1">"You ended up pretty far in."</p><p class="p1">"I just kept walking until I couldn't."</p><p class="p1">Mark focused on his phone because he did not like that image of Ryan forcing his body to the limits because the alternative was to be at the mercy of a madman. </p><p class="p1">“What’re we going to do about him?” Ryan asked.</p><p class="p1">"Who?"</p><p class="p1">“Traeger.”</p><p class="p1">“Well, we’re going to find him and find a way to beat him like we always do.”</p><p class="p1">If Ryan were sober, perhaps he would see the flaws in that plan, but he was still on way too many pain meds to think critically. “Alright, we’ll do that then.”</p><p class="p1">“Mhm.” Even Mark, who was sober, was sure they would, eventually; they had to.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please don't be mean and have a wonderful day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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